java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.xerces.parsers.XIncludeAwareParserConfiguration incompatible with org.apache.xerces.xni.parser.XMLParserConfiguration

Question

I get this error when deploying the ear file on to WLS 10.3 on AIX platform. (The same ear works fine on Windows / Linux platforms)

Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.xerces.parsers.XIncludeAwareParserConfiguration incompatible with org.apache.xerces.xni.parser.XMLParserConfiguration
    at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl.newDocumentBuilder(Unknown Source)
    at weblogic.xml.jaxp.WebLogicDocumentBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder(WebLogicDocumentBuilderFactory.java:140)
    at com.bea.security.xacml.policy.PolicyUtils.getRootNode(PolicyUtils.java:54)
    at com.bea.security.xacml.policy.PolicyUtils.read(PolicyUtils.java:86)
    at com.bea.security.providers.xacml.store.BasePolicyStore.getAbstractPolicy(BasePolicyStore.java:1251)
    at com.bea.security.providers.xacml.store.BasePolicyStore.readPolicy(BasePolicyStore.java:1231)
    at com.bea.security.providers.xacml.store.BasePolicyStore.readPolicy(BasePolicyStore.java:1114)
    at com.bea.security.providers.xacml.entitlement.PolicyManager.listPolicies(PolicyManager.java:747)
    at weblogic.security.providers.xacml.DeployableAuthorizationProviderV2Helper.startDeployPolicies(DeployableAuthorizationProviderV2Helper.java:90)
    at weblogic.security.providers.xacml.authorization.XACMLAuthorizationProviderImpl.startDeployPolicies(XACMLAuthorizationProviderImpl.java:269)
    at com.bea.common.security.internal.legacy.service.PolicyDeployerProviderImpl$V2Adapter.startDeployPolicies(PolicyDeployerProviderImpl.java:69)
    at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl$DeploymentHandlerImpl.<init>(PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl.java:143)
    at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl$DeploymentHandlerImpl.<init>(PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl.java:129)
    at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl$ServiceImpl.startDeployPolicies(PolicyDeploymentServiceImpl.java:97)
    at weblogic.security.service.WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper$DeploymentHandlerImpl.<init>(WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper.java:70)
    at weblogic.security.service.WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper$DeploymentHandlerImpl.<init>(WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper.java:60)
    at weblogic.security.service.WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper.startDeployPolicies(WLSPolicyDeploymentServiceWrapper.java:40)
    at weblogic.security.service.AuthorizationManager.startDeployPolicies(AuthorizationManager.java:489)
    at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.WebAppSecurityWLS.<init>(WebAppSecurityWLS.java:72)
    at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.ServletSecurityManager.<init>(ServletSecurityManager.java:39)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.<init>(WebAppServletContext.java:416)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.<init>(WebAppServletContext.java:464)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.HttpServer.loadWebApp(HttpServer.java:414)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.registerWebApp(WebAppModule.java:901)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.prepare(WebAppModule.java:345)

Answer 1

Your classpath is likely cluttered with different versioned JAR files of the Xerces API. Cleanup the classpath. In case of a webapplication, this includes Webapp/WEB-INF/lib, Appserver/lib and /JRE/lib folders.

Most common cause is that you have different versioned Xerces JAR's spreading over the Webapp/WEB-INF/lib and Appserver/lib. Assuming that the ones in the appserver's library are the default-supplied and correct versions, get rid of those in the webapp's library. You should not have any appserver-specific JAR's in the webapp's library.